


I'm On Fire

by Chimera428



Series: SuperCatSlams [6]
Category: Supercat - Fandom, Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Alien Bar, F/F, Minor Astra/Alex Danvers, Minor Eliza Danvers/J'onn J'onzz, Minor Lucy Lane/Alura - Freeform, Minor Maggie Sawyer/Lena Luthor, Minor Olivia Marsden/Agent Vasquez, Pool & Billiards, Space Dad Hank Henshaw | J'onn J'onzz, drunk!Kara, drunk!cat, waking up hung over, waking up together, waking up with no memory
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-28
Updated: 2017-12-12
Packaged: 2018-09-27 10:36:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 17,068
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10012055
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chimera428/pseuds/Chimera428
Summary: Cat Grant wakes up on her couch and she isn't alone, nor does she remember how they got there.





	1. The Morning After

**Author's Note:**

> Wasn't my original intention for teh challenge but writer's block will do that to you. 
> 
> Title comes from Bruce Springsteen's "I'm on Fire" and Vonda Shepard's cover of the The Pointer Sister's "Fire."
> 
> Takes place in one of my many au-verses where Astra never died, Alura landed, as did Mon-El, James is running CatCo, Winn is at the DEO, M'gann never left, Maggie met Lena thru Alex, Lucy runs the desert facility with Alura on hand while Hank runs the city side one with Astra on hand, Cat is on sabbatical but not like you think... ... just roll with it ;)

Cat drew in a slow breath, the kind one takes subconsciously as they rouse from sleep. Deep, filling, a breath that relays the internal argument of either turning over and going back to sleep or resigning oneself to the day and getting up.

In this particular moment however, the choice was compounded by the throb of Cat’s head and the drumming beat of her heart against her temples. She let out a gruff noise of displeasure, realizing she was hung over, a rarity anymore but not impossible. She pressed fingers to her forehead, trying to squeeze the building pain there away while turning over.

Only she didn’t turn over, couldn’t turn over.

Her headache was instantly forgotten, the rough carpet-y feel of her tongue against the roof of her mouth made that much more apparent as she realized it wasn’t a blanket keeping her warm. At least not entirely.

There was a blanket, thankfully, but there was also an arm, and a leg and the curve of a hip. Cat’s eyebrow shot into her hairline as she propped herself on an elbow, trying to get a better vantage of the woman tucked against her back and half draped across her.

Given her angle, and the death grip the other person had on her she couldn’t see much but with a slight pull of the blanket upward she realized that woman was half naked. Her breath caught sharply, heart somewhere in the top of her throat.

Granted this wasn’t the first time she had woken up with someone who had caught her fancy after a night of drinking, that was ironically how she landed husband number two. However, she hadn’t indulged in that particular bout of behavior in years and had no reason to lapse into such now.

Well that wasn’t entirely true, there was a reason. Tall, blonde and impossible. But her former assistant certainly wasn’t someone she would have wrecked herself over or even attempted to find a substitute for to get Kara out of her system.

Another thought struck her then, giving her pause as she chanced a look down at herself, letting out a breath of relief when she realized she was still clothed, at least from the waist up although with a test of her legs she realized her skirt from the day before were indeed gone.

“The hell did you do!?” Cat screamed at herself internally. Trying to recall the last thing she remembered around the pound of her head. She remembered her rooftop vaguely, but before she could even hope to recall those events the figure behind her moved.

Hips dug into her from behind, the curl of that slender leg pulling her back in while strong arms surrounded her body. What made her whimper however was the soft press of lips against her spine, the tip of someone’s nose pushing at her hair before their hot breath washed over her neck sending goosebumps all over her body.

“Cat…”

The entire world spun with that sleepy murmur, a voice she knew all too well despite its rough and arduous tone against her skin. Her hands wrapped around the forearm at her waist, fingers clawing at the blanket obscuring the wrist until she caught a flash of a gold watch band.

“Kara!” Cat said aloud in surprise hand coming over her mouth a second after as she waited only to feel the nod behind her, the nuzzle into the wings of her shoulders while those arms tightened and hugged her closer.

“Cat..” Kara murmured again, digging in deep, with small undulations of her body that were easily pushing Cat’s temperature higher and higher with each movement against her.

“Kara…” Cat warned, unsure how she was going to jostle the other woman awake without ending up on the floor. “God..” she sucked in a breath, licking her lips tightly as she tried to turn, to push, only to realize Kara was far stronger than she should have appeared.

“Warm..” Kara muttered and Cat let out another soft whimper when she felt the woman behind her fit her mouth around the exposed skin along the back of her neck.

“Ohstop… uhm.. Kara.. wake up..” Cat tried, only to feel Kara’s hand start to drift higher across her torso, pulling the button up she had on up with it.

“SUPERGIRL!”

Kara startled awake, another shout sent her way just before a thump to the floor resounded. Kara blinked bleary eyed before her features contorted into a pained expression, eyes slamming shut as she drew her body up to a more seated position, fingers filtering into her hair as she squeezed her head.

“What….” She croaked, letting out another growl of discomfort at the pounding in her skull.

“Not exactly how I imagined that absolute confirmation.”

Kara froze, eyes popping open before she lifted her head, eyes growing wider as she caught sight of Cat, on the floor, braced back on her palms in nothing but a shirt and black underwear.

“Oh fuck-” And not just any shirt. “-Rao.”

Cat gave her a knowing look, reflecting the sentiment before clearing her throat gently causing Kara to frown until she tracked Cat’s gaze and looked down, immediately grabbing the blanket around her waist and pulling it up to cover herself.

Cat would have to be dead not to have noticed the pull of the other woman’s muscles with her sudden actions, swallowing visibly as she pulled her bottom lip between her teeth and held it there, trying to contemplate what exactly to say or do.

“Ms. Grant..”

“That’s formal.”

“I..oh.. Kay.. sor..y.. Cat.. I..” Kara winced again, grabbing for the crown of her head again to push at the pounding still there.

“Do… you remember...?” Cat chanced, watching Kara’s shoulders drop a bit before that hand rubbed down the length of her face, surrounding her mouth and jaw firmly.

She looked up at Cat then, worry coloring her expression and something else, something that made Cat’s stomach turn sour as she shook her head no.

Cat nodded slowly, tugging down at the edges of Kara’s shirt around herself as she pushed up on her knees, moving to the couch edge while Kara seemed to sink deeper into it and away from her. She held her hands up for the other woman to see, easing them gently onto the round of Kara’s knees, feeling her jump.

“Kara… listen to me very carefully.”

Her hand was still over her mouth, digging into her face but she nodded, eyes never leaving Cat though she swore the woman could probably feel her heart beating its way out of her chest despite trying to appear calm.

Cat wasn’t sure how exactly to broach her next question but she had to be sure.

“You.. you’ve been with, slept with-” Cat was silenced with Kara’s shake of her head, feeling her heart sink before flexing her hands around Kara’s knees. “Okay… you’ve.. Taken care of yourself yes?”

If Kara’s face flushed any redder she’d be a lobster. Hand still in place Cat saw how hard she swallowed and felt the slight rise in the other woman’s body temperature before she gave a short burst of nods in response.

Cat started again, only to have her voice break slightly, clearing her throat and suddenly thankful she blushed from the chest upward first, unlike the woman in front of her who clearly did so in the opposing order.

“Okay, good, then you know… “ Cat’s tongue curled up against her upper lip, never in a thousand years could you have convinced her she would be having this conversation, with this particular person, on her knees, both of them half dressed and…

“You uhm.. You know your body, what certain things feel like, should feel like after and...mine doesn’t feel…” Cat let her words drift into implication, watching brilliant blue eyes search her features frantically before realization began to seep into them.

“It doesn’t?” Kara spoke behind her hand once the vice of her grip seemed to ease and Cat shook her head slowly, never breaking eye contact.

Cat shifted then, fingers flexing gently, her own nervousness and that same sour feeling pushing at her gut chilling her. She would never, ever, forgive herself if-

“Me-mine neither..”

“Oh thank god.” Cat breathed, her head dropping down as she let out a breath.

She felt Kara stiffen again and couldn’t help but wince at herself, realizing only now how that must have sounded.

“I should go.” Kara said awkwardly and Cat swore internally, knowing the other woman had mistaken her relief for rejection.

“I didn’t mean it like that.” Cat amended, lifting her head back up and searching Kara’s expression.

Kara nodded just the same, still holding the blanket to her chest but not as fiercely as before, in fact it had fallen lower around the line of her solar plexus and Cat averted her gaze.

“I should still.. “

“Kara.” Cat interrupted, feeling the other woman’s gaze on her but still kept her eyes lowered at her own hands on Kara’s still clothed knees.

“I don’t, want to say something, that I want to, because I don’t want you to feel that I’m just saying it to placate you in this moment.” Cat drew in a deep and finalizing breath.

“With that in mind, I will instead, offer you breakfast, or at the very least some advil.” She chanced a glance upward, holding Kara’s eyes for a moment until the woman nodded once. Cat mimicked the response, giving Kara’s knees a gentle squeeze.

“Close your eyes.”

Kara rose a brow then before Cat gave her a more pointed expression.

“Close. Your eyes.”

Kara swallowed visibly before obeying. She felt Cat push off her knees and stand, trying not to use her other senses to track her through the room only to feel the brush of fabric across her hands and into her lap.

“You can put your shirt back on.. “ Kara started to open her eyes only to have Cat’s fingertips touch her cheek and halt her motions completely. “-After- you count to thirty…”

Kara waited until she heard a door close somewhere upstairs before falling over onto the couch, bunching up a pillow and letting out a muffled groan into it.

“Oh god, oh godoHgod..OH GOD.” She sat upright again, wincing with another noise of discomfort before standing up, hurriedly buttoning up her pants wondering how that happened. -WHY- that had happened before shrugging back into her shirt, thankfully her bra was still on, despite being somewhat askew and she realized halfway up that she was suddenly surrounding in the unmistakable scent of Cat made vapor.

Kara let out a whine, looking heavenward, cursing Rao while secretly praying he would give her memories back from the night before. She twisted then, looking around until she saw her glasses on a far table, climbing half over the couch and snagging them and with that slight pitch to her body started to look for her shoes.

Cat thumped back against her bedroom door, and a second time for good measure wincing at the reverberation of her hangover through her skull thereafter. She made a grunt of a sound, reminding herself not to have whatever it was Kara had warned her about ever again..

She blinked then, realizing she remembered, at least remembered they were in a bar, as if that narrowed it down. She furrowed her brow trying to grasp at the fleeting haze, it was dark, there was neon and it was somewhere she had never been. The rest faded back away behind a throb of her headache and she made another grunt of disapproval before heading to her bathroom.

Cat scrubbed at her face, patting it dry with a towel before pulling on some clothes, knowing she had nowhere to go like the office, and with a small hop to pull the hem of the legs up, fastened the button to her jeans. Hands threaded through an over-sized sweater, hoping that surrounding herself in comfort and familiarity would ease the bursts of anxiety that continued to claw up from her belly and over her spine.

She grabbed the handle of her bedroom door, realizing, albeit briefly, that she was actually hoping Kara had stayed and not bolted like Cat suspected she might.

Kara whirled around with the sound of the door opening, fitting her glasses on her face before grabbing for the back of the armchair nearby to keep herself from spinning completely of balance as her equilibrium tried to remind her she was indeed hungover.

She winced at herself, rubbing at the back of her neck to ease the throbbing in her skull before looking back towards the stairs Cat was descending from. Her sweat off the shoulder and twice the size it should be, while the fitted dark pants she wore exposed the skin beneath along her thighs and across her knees.

“That’s… different.” Kara commented lamely while Cat rose a brow at her.

“That’s disheveled.” Cat replied, Kara’s shirt was wrinkled beyond repair, fastened hastily and out of sync with the line of button versus holes, untucked while her charcoal slacks mercilessly hugged every square inch of the woman impossibly so.

They stood across the room from one another, Kara biting at her bottom lip unseen while Cat eyed her before making an approach. Kara’s lungs filled with air, the hand at the back of her neck dropping slowly when the other woman was within arms reach.

“Your buttons are off.” Cat murmured before gesturing towards the kitchen. “I’ll, meet you in there.”


	2. The Evening Before

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Evening Before

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Special thanks to @AstraD for helping out on a particular pool shark ;)

“Really Bruce Springsteen..” Alex rolled her eyes to the notes of _I’m on Fire_ rounding through the bar as Kara sat back down with a rush of air from the cushion; back thumping into the wood soundly.

“It’s a cover… and so what I like this song.” Kara grinned as another round was set in front of them.

“Not exactly what I’d call Friday night drinking music, but okay.” She grabbed her far safer shot to Kara’s alien one, clinking the two glasses together before they both downed the various colored liquids.

Kara made a face followed by a sort of cough while Alex just winced a bit and shook her head.

“Ugh.. “

Alex couldn’t help but laugh. “If it’s that bad why do you even try?”

“Because, it’s rare I actually get to get drunk. Like, -ever-.”

“So now you’ve reserved a night to damage your liver like the rest of us?”

“No, I’ve reserved time with you and you like to-”

“Have a good time, I reserve most of my heavy drinking for family get togethers if you haven’t figured out by now.”

“So why the double round of shots?” Kara made another face, already grabbing the next shot glass as Alex grinned.

“Cause you’re paying.” She downed the second shot and Kara just grumbled, chasing after her sister with her own shot before almost frantically waving her hand in the air in front of her face.

“Oh my Rao… water or something else then..”

Alex laughed openly, signalling the waitress over before ordering herself a beer and Kara a water and a soda.

“Make that two beers.” Maggie said with a nudge, shoving Alex aside while Lena came up behind her.

Kara moved first, wobbly but with some semblance of grace as she allowed Lena into the booth.

“And a red wine.” The smooth tones of Lena’s voice followed as Kara set herself back down, making the other woman let out a surprised noise with the bounce the cushion gave her.

“Sorry!”

Alex chuckled behind her hand while Maggie shook her head.

“Honestly five minutes in and you’re already drunk.”

“I am not.”

“Okay on your way there.”

“I’ll have you know I’ve only had four…”

Lena nodded, adjusting her shirt as she wedged herself into the corner for something to brace herself against on the off chance Kara forgot herself again. “I’ll be thankful you haven’t attempted eight like that time with the mongrel.”

“Whoooo is only happy to provide your drinks.” Mon-El said with a tight smile towards Lena who looked a touch regretful at her nickname for him but only for a second.

“No charge on these.” He added, fitting a towel over his shoulder after he passed out their orders. “We’ve got food too you know.” He glanced to Kara on that one before pointing back to the bar, where Winn and M’gann were sat talking, while J’onn, James and Susan surrounded a pool table.

"Thank you, Matt." Lena supplied, attempting to be apologetic while Maggie slipped him a few bills unnoticed into his pocket.

"You could be nicer to him." Alex offered, not that she should be the first one to offer that, she'd practically pounded him into the wall on more than one occasion but still. He was slowly coming around. Some of the time.

"When he behaves maybe I will.  Your suggestion of him as part of my private security detail was disastrous."

"Hard to ask that of someone when you yourself can't behave."

"I beg your pardon."

Maggie grinned behind a sip of her beer, giving her girlfriend a wink before Lena actually blushed and hid her discomfort behind her own sip of wine.

"Oooh. Kay.. nope." Alex pulled herself out of the booth seat, only to shove Maggie further down before sitting opposite her sister and reclaiming her beer. "Ya'll can play down there not across my knees like last time."

Maggie nearly spit her beer out while Lena turned a darker shade of red despite the low lighting in the bar. Of course all that changed the second Kara sputtered and choked on her water.

Lena straightened, her hand resting on Kara’s back while Alex twisted following Kara’s wide eyed gaze only to swear. Maggie was up on her knees then, twisting in the booth to see before looking between the sisters and Lena.

“What?”

“Oh my god..” Lena murmured, finally seeing why the bar started to grow quieter and move aside here and there. “What is she doing here?!” The woman hissed, sinking down in the booth hoping she wouldn’t get noticed.

“Who?”

Kara took a deep breath inward, chasing her sputter with water properly this time before even Alex sunk down a bit, pulling Maggie with her.

James scratched, sending his shot wild and another ball bouncing up and off the table only to have the sound of impact split the air as one Cat Grant caught the wayward pool ball in her bare hand.

“My aunt.”  
“Cat”  
“Ms. Grant”

All three women answered while Maggie rose a higher brow, watching Lena and her expression.

“I kind of wish I had drawn the short straw and was at the DEO with Astra.” Alex murmured, glancing to her sister who’s eyes widened further. “Shit..”

Maggie leaned further forward, reaching across for Lena who also seemed to wince with Alex’s curse. “Baby what…”

"The Queen of all media.. is in an alien bar... where her former assistant is sitting plain as day in the middle of it." Alex answered.

Cat for her part merely grinned at James and the rest at the pool table, letting the ball roll back into play across the green felt before sauntering over to the bar. Her eyes tracked a few of the more eccentric individuals but she seemed otherwise unphased.

“What is he doing?!” Lena whispered, tracking her aunt cautiously while Mon-El leaned across the bar, chatting Cat up like they were old friends before setting about mixing her a drink.

Maggie looked around at the three of them then over to the bar then back again. “Oh for crying… you have seriously got to be kidding me.” She grabbed her beer and much like Alex had a moment ago, pushed up and into the seat to stand before pulling herself over the back of it and out without having to work herself around Alex.

“Maggie.. Magdelena!?!” Lena hissed watching her girlfriend saunter to the bar, waving the three other woman off before she slid up next to Cat, their conversation obscured by the woman’s backside.

“This can’t be happening, seriously, this can’t be happening…” Kara downed half her water, only to be pushed aside by Winn who nearly sat in her lap in his sudden realization of who was in the bar, followed by an oof from Alex with James’ larger frame suddenly blocking her view.

“What the hell is Ms. Grant doing here?!” Winn questioned almost frantically while Kara shoved him aside, causing James to catch him before he fell to the floor.

“I thought Cat was on sabbatical?” Followed James as he righted his friend and tried to act casual and inconspicuous while the lot of them seemed to fail miserably.

When no one answered Kara suddenly looked away from the bar back to the table only to find all eyes on her and could only shrink further into the booth.

“I don’t know. You’re the one filling her shoes not me! Shouldn’t you know if she’s in town and available to drop on in?!”

The group barely heard the voice behind James’ back, all still focused on Kara until that quiet tone rose loud enough to pull nearly everyone’s attention.

“EXCUSE MEEE..” Maggie looked in a round at all of them, a tray full of drinks balanced easily on her palm. “Kit’s got the drinks..” She offered the thing to James who traded the tray for a pool stick that Maggie took all too easily from him.

“I’ll be over there, with the rest of the adults, trying not to have my ass handed to me in pool.”

“There’s already twenty dollars against that Detective.” Cat’s voice crossed the bar like some great herald, silencing the entire group at the booth and painting dumbstruck looks across each of their faces.

“This is going to be so good.” Hank supplied, taking a perch along a stool to oversee the new game while Cat, rather expertly, loaded, racked and set the table.

“Maggie?” Lena’s voice broke the din, causing the woman in question to stutter slightly in her step before she turned back to the woman wedged in the corner of the booth. “What…?” The brunette looked between her aunt and her girlfriend before Maggie’s expression split into it’s wide knowing grin.

“She’s the pool shark I told you about.” Maggie winked then, setting her pool cue over her shoulder before trudging into battle while the whole of the booth followed her with their gazes.

Cat herself was selecting her cue, features serious and schooled into impassiveness as she turned, chalking the end of her chosen weapon before letting the biggest grin pull at her features.

“You’re awful.” J’onn murmured while M’gann could be heard laughing from her own place at the bar.


	3. Best Two Out of Three

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ["When we kiss.....fire..."](http://youtubeonrepeat.com/watch/?v=Wph2F0J0I00)

Nearly two hours, a few more rounds, and far too much money lost on Maggie’s respective ass, and the group had seemed to settle around the idea of Cat in the bar. In actuality she had been a regular, albeit hardly welcomed at first, given her title and place in the city. It hadn’t taken long however for M’gann to vouch for her and realize sometimes, even humans were aliens among their own.

Cat Grant was no exception to this.

It had been Winn who asked how they had all managed to miss her and aside from her unusual freedom of a schedule since taking her leave of CatCo to find herself, she had always merely left just prior to any of their arrivals to the establishment or vice versa.

For the most part anyway.

J’onn had found it ironic, given the sudden influx of thoughts from Cat when she had entered this evening and caught sight not only of Kara but her own niece as well. That particular string of expletives wasn’t one he was likely to forget anytime soon.

Needless to say, just like before, Cat had become quite the silent advocate, providing additional funds to the bar in the form of random deliveries of food or beverages and the odd round of care packages for those more refugee inclined.

Never once asking for recognition or payback in return. Just that Cat herself be allowed to seek solace in the nameless, faceless location; fall under its unspoken protections and go about as she pleased.

Cat herself should have guessed at some point she would have run into more DEO fare the first time she caught sight of Agent Mulder, or J’onn or Hank as she sometimes caught from a far corner hidden in shadow. Especially with the President’s new order and the threats from Cadmus arranged in no small surprise from her own sister.

When she thought hard enough about, which was rare save for the occasional moment of introspection, she and Lillian had fallen on two sides of a war she still felt coming. It was interesting all things considered. That little shift between them had taken root with Superman so long ago it seemed in Metropolis, and was only now further solidified by the hero’s cousin and Cat’s interests in said heroine.

Interests that had caught her far off guard the more she came to realize, despite all the attempts to the contrary to convince her, that one Kara Danvers was anyone but Supergirl.

It was another reason behind her absence.

Thanks to Cadmus and Lillian she knew instantly if her sister found out even a whisper of how close she and Supergirl were, secret identities aside, the tenacity her older sister held for getting what she wanted would only expand to the whole of CatCo as well as Supergirl. Which meant Kara and her family, and Cat and her own.

Lex had always used Lois to get at Superman, romantically involved or not, aside from his inclination towards humanity. It was an easy connection to exploit. Why should she doubt that behavior had been learned from his own mother; were she able, Lillian would have no qualms using Cat to get to Supergirl in similar fashion.

“When were you going to tell me your aunt was famous?” Maggie ushered against Lena’s ear as she came to sit behind her on the small table Lena had moved to.

Lena smirked faintly, legs crossed in their usual fashion as Maggie’s legs formed armrests for her to utilize. “When you confessed as to why you always seemed an hour late and a hundred dollars short.”

Like some princess Lena leaned back into the detective, setting her spine in just the right place, forcing Maggie’s thighs instinctively tighter at her sides where she draped her arm over them like a throne. Pale eyes watched the game at hand, watching her Aunt carve her way across another game before Alex set about racking the table back for their final round.

“I mean I knew Kit was rich, look at her, but still..was she always a Luth-”

Lena tipped her head back, rubbing against Maggie’s breastbone and causing the woman to fall silent.

“Mother married into that name.” Lena allowed, eyes watching Maggie’s features drift involuntarily closer. “She and Aunt Kitty haven’t talked in years.”

“Oh…” Maggie whispered, watching Lena worry her bottom lip with her teeth as she leaned further to chase after the swell only to find the both of them pushed apart by a pointedly placed pool cue.

“The hell-oh…” Maggie swallowed and smiled a thousand watt smile while Lena actually rose a brow at the owner of the cue.

“Given your profession and affiliations… I’m going to allow myself to assume your intentions are honorable.”

“Aunt Kitty…” Lena warned only to shrink slightly when Cat’s gaze drifted to her niece, her features reflecting a ‘don’t even think about it’ expression before drifting back to Maggie.

“Ma’am?”

Cat’s brow rose higher at Maggie then, her pool cue twisting a blue dot into Maggie’s shirt. “Just keep in mind my sister has -nothing- on me when it comes to my family..and don’t call me ma’am.”

“For crying out loud…” Alex droned, taking another hearty sip of her beer as another round was delivered to them from Mon-El. “Ms. Kitty stop waving about and leave her alone, or are you just stalling for some sobriety?”

James made an ooo sound and moved well out of the way then, coming to settle at the bar with Winn and M’gann while Mon-El filled their drinks upon returning to his own station.

“Probably should’ve told Danvers, Cat was the Planet’s pool champ four years running..”

“Meaning?” Winn glanced over at him before looking back to the table and Cat’s slow saunter back to it that even made M’gann tip her head a bit.

“Challenges only make it worse. She’s ridiculously competitive.. “

“Oh god.”

“Only person who ever beat her was Superman.. And even that was a fluke… I think..”

“You think?”

James nodded around another sip of his water. “He was winning when the game stopped abruptly.”

“Abruptly?” M’gann questioned, while Mon-El listened in.

“Lois showed up.”

It was Winn’s turn to make an ‘oooh’ sound as his expression shifted with Cat’s posturing.

“This is sinful.” Mon-El muttered, propping his chin on his hand as the other three nodded.

Cat stepped up into Alex’s personal space, arm wrapped around her cue as if it were some kind of scepter while eyeing the agent suspiciously.

“Are you saying what I think you are there Scully?”

Alex squared her shoulders, lifting her chin, trying not to be phased by Cat. “You’ve had more to drink than me on my best day-”

“With age comes wisdom and experience.. Kiddo. You’re thinking you can keep up but you can’t.”

“Ladies..” Hank warned before both women cut him into silence with a glare before looking back at one another.

“Shot for shot then?” Alex challenged and even Kara started to get up from where she was seated.

“Sit down.” Both women stated without looking at the heroine before Cat held out her free hand.

“Shot for shot.”

Alex took Cat’s hand into her own, the pair of them refusing to let the other go until their knuckles were nearly white before they split apart.

“Mon-El!”

“Daxam be damned..” The man muttered, while Winn leaned closer to James.

“Fifty on Alex.”

James could only look over at his partner, his smile infectious. “You’re so losing that bet.”

“Is she always so….”

“Violent?”  
“Competitive?”  
“Hot?”

The three men spoke in unison to M’gann’s question causing the martian to look at the three of them, ending on Mon-El with a slight shake of disbelief.

“You still need to work on your syntax..and I was going to say open.”

“Meaning?” James questioned watching as Mon-El headed over with a tray of shots, allowing both women to take one and swallow it down before each moved to their respective sides of the table. Cat near Kara who was seated on a stool near one corner, and Alex set herself up to break.

“I forget you can’t.. Her mind. It never stops. Well not never.”

M’gann watched as Cat glanced over her shoulder at Kara, who was still nursing a shot of her own from the last round and nearly choked on it when Cat caught her staring.

“It stops sometimes..”

Mon-El passed the shot tray off to a neutral ground table top set near the middle of the pool table so either woman could nab one where needed.

Winn just shrugged while James kept silent, taking another sip of his water.

“My main concern honestly, is who’s going to call Astra to come get Alex?”

With that question a round of ‘not its’ floated up around him causing the man to sigh.

“Get it Danvers..don’t let her intimidate you!” Maggie cheered, while Lena continued to use her like a throne. “Even if she is far more experienced and-”

“Don’t ..finish that sentence.” Lena requested with a wave of her hand, using the other to lift her wine glass to her lips. “Kick her ass Aunt Kitty.”

Alex turned towards the pair after missing her second shot. “Really, peanut gallery, must you?”

Maggie threw a thumbs up coupled with a toothy grin while Lena merely tipped her chin down and looked up at Alex as if addressing some kind of subject in her own variation of some medieval great hall behind a sip of her wine.

“Three…” Cat uttered in a tone that made all three of them look at her. She was set against the far edge of the table, bent over the lip of it, hips digging into the metal there as she stretched. It was a long shot, no matter what pocket she called.

“In the corner..” Cat stated easily, while Kara swallowed heartily, her cue pistoning in and out of the cage of her fingers as she lined up her shot. A ghost of a smile fluttered across her lips as her eyes lifted from the pocket to the one seated a short distance behind it and she took the shot.

There was a crack as the billiards collided and when the solid red ball caught the corner pocket Kara’s legs actually tightened harder together before Cat rose up slowly, the cue ball still spinning precariously on the edge of the table just in front of the pocket itself.

“Damn it” Alex cursed, dropping a shot back as Cat rounded the table again.

Kara swallowed hard, feeling her heart pound away in her chest as Cat stalked towards her in the low light only to come to a slow stop inches away. Kara’s mouth was suddenly dry and her lips parted as if to ask something profound only to make some kind of primitive noise that could be considered a question.

Cat shifted her stance and it was then Kara realized just how high Cat’s last position had pushed that skirt up, and the fact that Cat had yet to correct its position.

“Pardon me?”

Kara downed the last of what was in her glass then, if for nothing else but to rehydrate herself.

“Did you need me..er. Something Ms..”

“Cat, in here it’s Cat and yes.. Kara, for you to move.” Cat moved around the corner, barely brushing Kara’s knee as she faced the table and somehow managed to keep a straight face when she heard glass shatter behind her.

Kara for her part managed to stay upright even as she half fell off the stool she had been on. Whether it was the contact or her haste to get out of the way she wasn't sure but the glass was lost. She tried to cover it up with the scrape of the stool out of the way moving to a safer distance.

"Smooth." Maggie teased while Lena tried not to snicker.

Alex was by the shot table, arms crossed and cue held in the bind of her elbows while Cat again prostrated herself across the table, she was taking risky shots in favor of far easier ones.

“Two…” Cat pitched her hips, shifting her weight to one side as she lined up the angle. “In the side.” The shot was hollow but the impact and resulting streak of blue as the ball found its pocket was solid.

Kara curled her fingers around the stool in her grasp until the metal whined, eyes running across Cat's every curve set out for display before she closed them and tipped her head upward thanking and cursing Rao at the same time.

Alex huffed, swallowing down another shot, crinkling her nose to the burn of it.

Cat shifted again, easing her skirt down to a more respectful level as she stalked around the table like some great feline in a cage for her next shot. She was eyeing the one, its blaring yellow sphere tucked inside a cluster of varying other balls, knowing she could very easily scratch or pocket the eight ball prematurely.

Her point was subtle, whether it was the alcohol or the unexpected reality of the company she was in was anyone’s guess, but Cat had been determined to make it with this last round.

Especially considering she was solids this time.

Cat never did like to lose, but with another glance up from the table and its complexities to the far more complex object of her wayward and unvoiced affections, she wondered if she already had. Her leaving had been a sort of cowards method of chivalry, as had her actions towards the alien populace within National City.

Being the Queen of all media, human or not, these people were still hers. Which had only seemed to compound itself when her sister insisted on parading around as the wicked witch of the west coast. Cat had argued with herself over and over that she was doing the right thing, that her intentions were noble and not self driven.

As she caught Kara’s gaze again, she drew in a deep breath, realizing in a roundabout way she had only ever done these things for her. For that ounce of sunshine that she was too terrified to admit had warmed the ice around her heart and melted it away.

“One..” Cat looked back to the table again, edging to the far side, keeping Kara in her periphery as she lined up a shot, her focus on that round of sunlight color, before taking her shot. “In the corner.”

Cat straightened with the sound, knowing it well before turning her features to Kara watching her reaction.

The spiral of yellow indeed scooted into its named pocket, but given the cluster surrounding it she managed to also bank one of Alex’s balls into the opposite corner pocket resulting in a foul while scattering the table to an easier field of play in turn.

Kara’s gaze drifted to the table, her expression struck as it returned to Cat, knowing the woman had the shot, could have closed the table and sunk it in nine more shots if she had been strategic and not risky.

“Ha!” Alex pointed, sucking down another shot before heading for the table while Cat conceded her place, again passing near Kara in search of her own shot.

“Live it up Scully.” Cat called, holding her glass up for a brief instant towards Kara before downing her shot effortlessly and turning back to the table as Alex rubbed her hands together and squared up for her next turn. 


	4. Breakfast and Phone Calls

Kara turned the pan easily, letting the omelet ease onto her plate while Cat stood, or more leaned, against the island munching away on her own breakfast. Kara had insisted on cooking, for something to focus on other than Cat of course, in the hopes it would defog her mind and ground her into a place of remembrance.

Neither woman could recount what had happened in greater detail beyond that game of pool, or more rounds of pool, marathon of pool if Cat were honest. Then Kara’s sister had been adamant to beat her and Kara had been so focused on her that Cat couldn’t help but indulge in the sensation.

Absence does indeed make the heart grow fonder. Kara’s absence in her life, Kara’s attention to her had indeed made her grow fonder for it and with the location and the ease of alcohol in all of their systems the usual facades and filters slowly faded away from all of them.

That last round had been obscene when she really thought about it, indulgent and farther than she would have ever pushed herself for Kara's sake at the office.

Of course she had also assumed Kara was without any doubt Supergirl and therefore would have remained stone cold sober for the night. Course, she remembered all too late upon entering, that bar was anything but human oriented and if Kara could get drunk that would be the place to make it happen.

She had noted Kara had switched back and forth between water and beer, with the occasional shot brought to her by Alex or Maggie that she nursed over the course of each hour but still. Cat had made her decision then and knew despite how many she herself might have, knew she was going to limit her display to the pool table. Which included the room as a whole even if -her- focus was Kara.

Kara was in far safer company than Cat herself was, outside of her niece perhaps but overall the group she had been adopted into was far heavier in Kara’s favor than her own. Which served as its own comfort, until she had woken up of course.

Cat let out a small sigh, the small beep of the coffee machine triggering the haze of her hangover all over again.

“I got it.” Kara said gently, putting a hand to Cat’s shoulder and coupling the touch with a gentle squeeze as she slipped around her and grabbed two mugs off the nearby rack. It wasn’t until she was filling the second mug that Kara even realized how easy and domestic that had come about while also cursing herself for assuming such familiarity.

Cat for her part had only slowed the chewing of her own omelet with the contact glancing to Kara’s back and thusly the self chastising expression that flickered across the half of her face Cat could make out before she turned her eyes back down to her plate. She cut another bite with the edge of her fork, her other hand wrapped around her bicep as she adjusted her hips into a more comfortable stance.

Kara eased open the fridge as if she had done it a thousand times before, scanning the contents of the thing before nabbing a few additives that she used to doctor their drinks before making her way back.

“Thank you.” Cat said genuinely, when her mug was in reach, while Kara retreated to her own side.

“Course Miss-”

“Cat. Stop calling me Miss Grant Kara.” Kara tucked her bottom lip between her teeth for a split second before nodding.

“Habit.” She allowed, forking her own bite and chewing on it thoughtfully.

Cat hid a smile behind her mug, letting out a low hum of appreciation as the coffee warmed her insides and threatened the remaining edge of her hangover with obliteration.

“Any...memories?” She cautioned, setting her mug down and resuming her quest for food.

It was Kara’s turn to let out a dark sigh, adjusting her glasses out of habit as she shook her head and frustratingly forked far more than a standard bite into her mouth.

“MNoph…”

Cat smirked around her own much, much smaller bite, chasing it with another sip of coffee.

“First time?”

“Mfes.”

Cat rolled her eyes. “Swallow all that before you choke.”

Kara glanced back at Cat fully then, mouth full and cheeks turning pink before she did exactly that, causing Cat’s expression to shift into a more worrisome expression.

“I meant after chewing it…”

“Sorry.”

Cat shook her head. “You don’t, there’s no reason to apologize. Yet anyway.” With Kara’s sudden wide eyed expression Cat gave her a more pointed look. “I meant on my end, I doubt you in all your chivalry would do anything even remotely untoward, inebriated or not.”

“You don’t know-”

Cat cut her eyes back up to Kara over the rim of her mug, one eyebrow arching high before Kara made a face in response.

“Don’t.. Look at me in that tone of voice. I used to get in a lot of trouble. Sober.”

Cat’s body jerked slightly with her quelled laugh, swallowing hard she set her mug back down to a safer place between them.

“-Used to-? I sense a story there.”

Kara didn’t exactly share in her mirth and instead dropped her gaze back to her plate, cutting another, much smaller bite of her breakfast. The times she had let loose and gotten into trouble had always resulted in something rather catastrophic as a result. Jeremiah, her first kiss, and second and third.. Her first-

“Maybe one I’ll get when we discover the story of last night.” Cat soothed, straightening with her plate, only half done. She came to stand right beside Kara, letting the corner of her smile show as she took the time to relish in the height difference between the two of them for a moment.

Kara swallowed visibly, the heat from Cat’s body threatening to encompass her with the woman’s nearness, forearm barely brushing across Kara’s side.

“You sure you want to find out?” Kara cautioned, glancing sidelong to Cat before hesitatingly turning her head towards the other woman.

“I am,” she tipped her plate, easing the remains of her breakfast onto Kara’s plate before looking back up at her. “On both fronts.” Cat held Kara’s gaze for a second longer than was necessary, the sudden rush of anxiety and jump in her heart rate nearly making her waver closer.

“Finish eating…” Cat broke the moment just as Kara moved only to halt with her words too late to do anything more. “I’m going to make a few calls. See if anyone else from last night can shed some light on things.”

Kara nodded, tracking Cat’s motions before turning away from her and looking heavenward with a faint curse and a rush of an exhale.

Cat nabbed the phone from its cradle, dialing the number she already knew in her head and waiting.

Across town there was a string of curses followed by a whine of protest until Maggie half crawled half stood from the floor, stretching over the bed until she grabbed her phone and hitting the red button.

“Oh thank god.” Lena’s rasp of a voice floated up to her from the floor.

“I wouldn’t be so quick to-”

Maggie’s voice was cut off with another shrill sound, this time from Lena’s phone.

“Ugh.. who is it..?”

“Your long lost aunt..”

“Very funny.”

Maggie snagged Lena’s phone from the opposite stand, holding it up to her while the other woman blocked out the light from between her fingers.

There was a shout of surprise from the detective as Lena used the tangle of sheet around her hips to yank her back down, as well as her phone before fumbling with both. Silencing one with a slow kiss while answering the other with a swipe of her thumb.

“Lena….stop making out with your detective and ans-”

“YES Aunt Kitty… what can I help you with?”

Maggie chuckled quietly, realizing Lena had hit the answer via speaker option on her phone.

“Are both of you somewhat sober..”

Lena glanced to Maggie who nodded before ducking her head down and nuzzling into the woman’s neck.

“Mmmhhmm…” Lena filtered her fingers into Maggie’s hair, biting at her lip when she felt wet kisses paint across her skin.

“Do you….remember what happened last night?”

“Uh...wha...you won and we left.”

“Before that…”

“Mmm..”

Cat huffed into the phone. “Magdalena stop claiming my niece’s throat for your own for a second.” Maggie’s head shot up and Lena could only shrug before Cat continued. “Before you left.. After I won.”

A slow smile grew across Maggie’s lips then, one that Lena only looked more confused over.

“Wait a minute Kit.. after all the offered drinks… all the pushing and prodding… all the turn downs… all the times you kicked my ass and had half that bar falling over you… you finally, finally say yes to someone and you don’t remember?”

Lena’s eyes went wide then, realization slamming into her as she slapped a hand over her own mouth to keep from laughing. A notion that was only made harder when her aunt didn’t answer right away.

A phone rang in the distance on Cat’s end, and both women strained to hear only to have any ounce of hearing if Cat was alone or not get obscured by the sound of annoyance the woman made.

Kara had been finishing up with breakfast when she heard her phone ring from the other room. Not wanting to bother the other woman she pushed out of the kitchen, scanning around for the thing until she pinpointed it and answered.

“Alex?”

“Where are you?”

Kara stiffened, half worried she was going to have to take a leap off Cat’s balcony.

“I-”

“Not at your apartment, and Winn said you left after Astra came and got me. By the way why did you give James the secure line?”

“I uh.. Because.. As Guardian if he runs into things while he and Winn are-”

“He called Astra…”

Kara frowned slightly, Alex’s words catching up to her. “Are you.. Why are you at the DEO right now?”

“Make up duty…”

“On a Saturday?”

Alex sighed darkly.

“You scared her didn’t you?”

“Yes she did Little One…”

Kara winced when she heard Astra’s words come over the phone and wondered just what exactly James had said to Astra. Even Kara hadn’t remembered that, and undoubtedly would have gotten an earful from her aunt all things considered if they had run into one another.

“The establishment was closing, James wanted to go home and J’onn and M’gann had already reported back, even Lucy said you sent her a message on your cellular device saying you were keeping the weekend or something.”

Kara logged her Aunt’s words into her brain, that at least gave her a time table, vague as it was before Alex’s voice came to the fore.

“Kara?” Alex tried again while Kara looked up from her phone when her name resounded in stereo.

“Was that the feline wom-”

Kara brought the phone down, hitting the mute button so neither her aunt or Alex could hear.

“Yes, Cat, sorry.. Family check in..”

“Same here..” Cat was standing in the open doorway of the kitchen, setting her house phone on the nearby end table. “Any ?”

Kara held up a finger before bringing the phone back up and unmuting the thing.

“-ld you mean. No we’re not using DEO resources, or threats to my technician for information. It’s her name Astra not her species for crying-”

“If you are out with my Little One then she should be more aware of you and that getting a call from the vigilante is the last thing-”

“Alex?”

“Kara! Finally sheesh, look are you with Cat, as in -Cat Grant-?”

“Yes, we left-”

“Yeah together first, I know I was just telling Astra that. Along with the fact that -you- are not my keeper when we go out. And you’re fine, you’re not in distress or anything, -right-?”

“What, no. I’m fine, we’re fine, everything’s fine. I swear on Rao. Gonna go now, you two have fun or something with that. Love you, and her and bye.”

Kara hung up the phone and in a frustrated display nearly threw it through the couch instead of onto it. It wasn’t until Cat made the most uncharacteristic chuff of a sound through her nose involuntarily failing at suppressing her laughter.

The noise alone pulled at something in Kara, aside from her attention. Cat’s arms were wrapped around her torso while a hand was over her mouth, Kara was breathing heavy and with the sound her expression twisted into confused amusement before Cat’s laughter spilled through her own fingers.

The sounds were infectious and within seconds the pair of women were laughing until neither could seem to breathe without some kind of aid.

There was a blip of a sound as Winn’s phone went off, he glanced over to Astra and Alex who were engaged in a battle of verbal wills ranging between Kryptonian and English before sneaking a peek.

“Tell me you made this up..”

Winn frowned, texting James back furiously. “I pulled it from CatCo’s sec feed this morning.”

There was a long pause followed by another blip of a sound.

“Why were you even checking!? Why were they even .. oh god does she know is that why? Did Cat tell you to get it? Are we about to have to do damage control?! I gave the weekend to everyone because it’s Valentine’s Winn!”

Winn made his own chortle of a sound, rapidly texting away to assure his boyfriend everything was fine. He checked because it was a habit, one he developed when he first started working with Kara before the DEO; one he had only furthered when he started helping out James as Guardian. It was his own way of being a superhero, keeping an eye on his two favorites at all times where needed. And thank the gods too, what if security had been paying enough attention, or he hadn’t scrubbed the feed with an endless loop of inactivity.

“I wasn’t going to just let it go, this is golden. This is the thing you show up with on a birthday or anniversary. It’s all good.”

Winn waited for a response, scrolling up to the gif he had made from the footage and sent to James. Cat was laughing unlike any way Winn had ever been witness to in his tenure at CatCo, it was like she was completely free or something. However in that mirth, she leaned too far forward and was over the edge of the roof and gone.  In the next second Kara could be seen literally swan diving off the building like some kind of olympic diver, only to reappear in a blur. Cat tucked and wrapped in Kara’s arms as she landed on the rooftop looking like they had just stepped off the cover of some torrid romance novel.

“What exactly are you doing Mr. Schott?” Hanks voice startled the man, causing him to fumble his phone before shoving it back into his pocket.

“Silent sir, putting it on silent.. “

Within a few seconds Alex’s phone went off, as did Susan’s, even Astra’s “primitive communicator” buzzed at her hip halting her argument with Alex just as Hank’s phone buzzed near Winn’s head.

Even Cat and Kara’s phones buzzed away, though both were ignored in favor of the balcony outside and away from breakfast and couches and phones and outside influences as the pair tried to recall the night before.

Elsewhere across the city other phones went off, tagged and linked to one singular incident of Cat Grant becoming her own variant of a damsel in distress while Kara, sans suit, played her knight in shining armor.


	5. After Hours Questionnaire

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My business got acquired and I'm on the ground transition team..  
> I AM SO SORRY I'VE LEFT PEOPLE HANGING
> 
> Hopefully when we re-launch this'll chill.. sorry for the lack of updates on all things.

Cat put on a perfect expression, stoic and no nonsense while Kara had to bite at her own mouth to keep from giggling as they stalked through the lobby of CatCo. The guard on duty was quick to his feet, his expression confused given the hour and the pair making their way towards the private elevator bank. 

“Charlie.” She mused, giving him a ghost of a smile as she passed, ushering Kara along as if she were no more than an accessory. “Isn’t it time for rounds?” 

“Uh..wha..yes Ms. Grant.. Rounds.” He leaned just slightly as the doors slid shut, secreting Cat and Kara away from him. 

With the thud of metal and rubber Kara lost it, her laughter spilling into the elevator and dragging Cat along with it in the form of a wide smile as she tried to remain stoic and the very picture of herself until Kara nudged her a little too hard and sent her off balance. 

She had expected the impact of the wall not the warmth of Kara’s body wrapping her up as the younger woman’s back thumped into the wall on the edge of another round of giggles. 

“I’m sor..so..sorry.”  Kara said, wedged into the corner, National City phasing into its picturesque landscape along the window while her hands flexed around Cat’s hips.  

The other woman was braced against her, far closer than she had expected to be so soon, the strength of Kara’s shoulders fitting easily into her palms and clenching at her insides. 

“I don’t think you are.” Cat mused, licking her lips absently before the voice in the back of her mind reminded her of their situation and she straightened, finding her footing and taking a step back. “But apology accepted.” 

Kara stayed against the wall, letting Cat’s waist slip from her fingers and leaving her hands on fire.  She cleared her throat after another moment between them, adjusting her glasses as the elevator continued upward. 

Cat glanced up at the floor indicator then, letting out a settling breath as she straightened her shirt.  How she had allowed Kara to convince her of this was going to be an internal topic of discussion she would muse over for days.  

_ Alex had been beside herself, caught in the cradle of Maggie and Lena’s grasp as she nearly collapsed, the bar as a whole had erupted with her and Cat’s game as somehow, whether it was the alcohol or the adrenaline or the flirting or just sheer dumb luck, they were both still on their feet and Alex had missed her last shot.  _

_ Cat was again across the pool table from Kara, calling the pocket her hips were pressed against and with a sharp crack the eightball collided with the walls nearest the other woman, narrowly missing Alex’s last stripped ball only to slow down upon its approach to the pocket.  _

_ Everyone had held their breath as the ball teetered on the edge before lulling off the felt and out of sight.  _

_ Kara’s shout had gotten lost to the rest of the bar, except to Cat. Who never took her eyes off the other woman even as she downed a shot in a flair of showmanship before presenting Alex with the remaining tray and telling her to drink up.  _

_ Another round of shouts and hollars went up along with the playful ragging of Alex’s efforts and maybe next times.  In the commotion Cat had abandoned her cue and made her way to the other Danvers sister, watching her pulse escalate along her throat while Cat moved out of her direct eyeline and somewhere just behind her.  _

_ “That was amazing.” Kara let slip, glancing towards her own shoulder as she felt Cat’s body heat shift before looking back towards the commotion surrounding her sister.  _

_ “It was fun.” Cat shifted to Kara’s opposite side, warring with herself for only a moment, as Kara finished off her shot in a rush of movement, before speaking again .  _

_ “You should join them.”  
_ _ “Do you want to get out of here?” _

_ Kara was half turned with her question, throat flushing red from the shot as it warmed her insides and carried on the euphoric nature she already seemed to be floating in via Cat’s nearness alone.  _

_ Cat glanced over the woman’s shoulder, watching Alex get hoisted up by Maggie and some other alien as they chanted at her to finish her shots before looking back to Kara.  _

_ “Are you s-”  _

_ “Yes.”  Kara nearly crushed the glass in her grip and before she did so quickly put it aside, turning to face Cat completely. “Unless you need to-” _

_ “Nope.”  _

_ Kara didn’t know if it was the alcohol or the game or too long buried feelings coupled with what felt like some missed opportunity that had emboldened her then but she grabbed for Cat’s hand, pulling her along easily.  They skirted the wall, Kara passing Cat’s hand from one of her own to the other behind her as their fingers linked and they gathered Cat’s things and drifted out the door into the alleyway.  _

Cat recalled how they had stumbled out; _  the sound of a bottle rolling and a gruff curse causing Kara to bow up suddenly and fit Cat behind her until the individual against the far corner turned over and went back to sleep.   _

_ Kara’s relief was another flood of adrenaline fueling her system, while Cat actually muffled a laugh into her back as Kara played along and guided them out of the treacherous alley as if they were in some kind of labyrinth; narrating the whole way until they were out and standing curbside in a safer, as one could get for nearly midnight in a big city, location.  _

_ “Austin is on his way.” Cat mused, her phone tucked back into her bag while Kara spun around a stoplight pole slowly.   _

_ Cat watched with an amused expression while Kara rounded the pole and away again, stepping forward a few steps only to make Kara nearly fall when she came back around and was face to face with Cat.  _

_ It was Cat’s turn to grab for Kara, neither of them noticing that she was floating to keep herself from actually following through with the action of falling over despite the sudden proximity of the other woman to herself.  _

_ “Hi..”  _

_ Cat shook her head slightly, brow rising at Kara’s tone.  _

_ “Hi.” She felt the other woman regain her balance and slowly eased her grip on Kara’s sides until the other woman’s hands flexed across her forearms to stall her movements.  _

_ “Are you drunk?”  _

_ Kara straightened slightly, still holding onto Cat’s arms with the question, her head tipping curiously like some kind of puppy.  _

_ “N..I .. no?”  _

_ “You don’t hesitate, and you’ve never been inebriated in the time I’ve known you Kar-”  _

_ “I.. am tipsy.”  Kara allowed, the amusement of their situation suddenly beginning to eb. “I..’m sorry I shouldn’t-”  Kara let go of Cat then, already moving to back away and put more distance between them.  _

_ “Unwind?” Cat offered, she wasn’t sober herself, she merely had far longer practice at maintaining an outward illusion of it.   _

_ “I don’t want-”  _

_ “To take advantage?”  _

_ Kara swallowed hard, her shoulders dropping further when Cat let go of her but didn’t step back. Yet.  _

_ “You, you’re really good at pretending and I’m not and I’m.. I don’t want to do or say or-”  _

_ “Kara was your question honest?”  _

_ “Question?”  _

_ “In the bar.. To get out,  to get away from-”  _

_ “Yes.” _

_ “But you had nothing in mind?”  _

_ Kara licked her lips, biting down on her mouth as she felt the flush of heat and color work through her skin all over again.  _

_ “No-nothing torrid just-”  _

_ “Yes?” Cat wavered closer, even as her car pulled up and Austin was out and opening the back door.  _

_ Kara swallowed thickly, glancing to the man only to have Cat turn her features back to her with the tips of her fingers under her chin.  _

_ “CatCo..”  _

_ Cat rose a high brow then, the edge of her smirk unveiled despite her attempts to the contrary.  _

_ “I miss our-your balcony, just talking and-”  You I miss you, was what she wanted to finish with but Kara was hushed by the gentle pressure of Cat’s fingertips against her lips before Cat drifted away, snagging the other woman’s hand and pulling her along in a mimic of Kara’s own actions earlier.  _

_ “The office.” Was all Cat said as they slid inside and the door closed behind them.  Austin gave an odd look to the car before shaking his head and making his way around again.  _

The ding of the elevator pulled Cat from her thoughts but before she could step forward she let out a small sound of surprise with being yanked back by her elevator companion.  Who again, ushered Cat behind herself as she made an overly dramatic display of peeking into the bullpen outside Cat’s office.

“What’re you doing” 

“Shhh..” 

Kara started to elaborate only to have the elevator doors try to close in on her shoulders, to which she shoved back at them. “Rude..” She caught the snorttle of a laugh behind her but carried on, palm flat on the elevator opening to keep that from occurring again. 

“Camera’s..” Kara huffed, leaning forward, straining her hearing to ensure honestly that no one else was actually on the floor with them.  There were always stragglers, but it was late and Friday night and Olsen had sent out a memo allowing early leave for this weekend only with the expressed implication that Monday would start early.  

Once she was satisfied she reached for Cat, finding the anchor of her hand easily before she gave a squeeze.  

“On three.. One...two..” 

“On three or after..?” 

“What?” 

“On three or after?” 

“After? Like, on go?” 

“Screw it, one-two-three.” 

Cat edged past Kara’s frame and towards her own office only to be pulled off gait and back towards the cubicles, Kara easily moved their joined grip to her other hand like before, never once breaking contact and easily taking the lead.  She ducked down and wove them both through the labyrinth, easily replacing the memory of the last time they had attempted to legitimately hide from LiveWire with this far more amusing and endearing venture. 

Were Cat still acting CEO she wouldn’t be caught dead doing this, tipsy, drunk, medicated or stone cold sober. In truth she wouldn’t be doing this regardless were it not for the rush of exhilaration Kara had managed to provide her and the fact that it truly didn’t matter what she did CEO or not, that had been the point of leaving.  

To go and seek new adventures. 

Her previous few months had been so serious and full of self imposed isolation Cat was at least seventy five percent certain she would be doing this exact thing with Kara completely sober and with very little prompting. 

Once they were in the stairwell and the door secure Cat set herself into a corner in an effort to catch her breath while Kara checked the stairwell both up and down, leaning far over the railing between floors until her feet were off the ground before coming around and sitting on the stairs. 

“We’re clear.” 

“Clear?” Cat huffed, pushing her hair back from her face on the edge of a smile. “I thought you wanted to go to my balcony..” 

“Yes, but then I realized James might show up or something and I don’t, didn’t want to improvise then so I thought.”  Kara pointed straight up. 

Cat followed the finger upward before looking back to Kara. 

“The roof?” 

Kara nodded a few times with a small grin. 

“The roof.”

Kara’s grin widened as she nodded even more emphatically. 

“Full of surprises aren’t you..” 

“Me?”  Kara ‘ha’-d then cupped her hands over her mouth to squelch the outburst. “Me..try pointing that surprise notion at yourself there Kit or Aunt Kitty or or.. Yeah..”

Cat rose an eyebrow at the other woman. 

“Something you want to say there Kiera or Kara… or should I say Sup-” 

Kara was up and in Cat’s space in the span of a heart beat, only to waver and Cat couldn’t help but fist the fabric of Kara’s shirt into her hands to keep her steady. 

The pair of them stood like that for a long moment, just staring at each other, even as Kara’s hands drifted towards Cat’s hips but never settled, merely hovered in the air around them while Cat’s grip held tight.  

Kara licked her lips after a visible swallow before straightening her shoulders. 

“Do you wanna go on the roof or not?” 

Cat watched the blade of that wet muscle drift away before sucking in the shared air between them and finally nodded. 

Kara’s face broke then, her grin infecting Cat easily until the woman shouted and her world pitched completely. 

“The hell are you doing?!” Cat’s voice bounced with every press of Kara’s shoulder into her diaphragm as the woman took two steps at a time before the bang of the roof access door announced them to the night and National City’s skyline. 

The world spun again before her feet were planted on the concrete of the helio pad only for Kara to snag her around the waist when she started to go down again.  

“Wow...ok..you...jesus, you can’t just move like that and make everything…”

“Close your eyes.” Kara said, “And hold onto my back..” 

“What?”

“Just.. close them.” Kara said, already bending over against Cat’s hip to keep her steady while Cat flattened her hands on Kara’s back and held on where she could. “Ready?” 

“Yes...I think...oh spinning still.” 

Cat’s voice was taken again when she felt herself twisted the other way, again her hips lifted enough to pull her feet out of her shoes. 

“Open!” 

Cat did so watching the end of the world spinning in the opposite direction before Kara set her flat footed on the ground.  The chill of the concrete pulled her immediate attention, despite the alcohol in her system, while the counter spin seemed to right her equilibrium. 

“..that’s a new one.” 

“Told ya..” Kara murmured only to slip off her own balance and fall at Cat’s feet.  “Only works for one of us though..” Kara winced, covering her eyes over her glasses a moment while Cat actually chuckled. 

“I thought you couldn’t-”

Kara held up a hand before Cat continued with her implication. “I never said I couldn’t, I merely said I didn’t..” 

“Don’t..” 

“Don’t what..” 

Cat rolled her eyes, dropping her bag gently before crouching down in front of Kara with her knees pressed together. 

“You never said you couldn’t, you merely said you don’t.. Not didn’t.” 

“Oh.. yeah..” Kara’s fingers flexed when she felt Cat’s own filtering through her digits, gently pulling her blinders away.  She felt pressure on her glasses and tensed enough to push the dizziness aside just as her eyes popped open and refocused. 

Cat was looking at her carefully, as if asking permission and with Kara’s slight nod merely pushed the woman’s glasses back up along the bridge of her nose into proper place. 

“There.. Another method for you.” Cat murmured offering Kara a genuine smile.  Again they lingered in the comfortable silence of one another, each time discovering something new about the other until Cat glanced to her bag.  

Kara’s gaze followed, brow arching when she caught sight of a dark neck of a bottle. 

Cat’s hand was around it a second after, lifting the nearly full decanter and giving it a slight shake. 

“Cat Grant… did you-” 

“I procured it.. I’ll settle up later.” 

Kara grinned, letting out a bemused laugh of a sound as Cat undid the top and took a very undignified and well beyond uncharacteristic swig from it.  

“Wanna play?” 

Kara looked at her incredulously, her grin remaining despite the whisper of trepidation in response to Cat’s question. 

“Truth or shots?”

“You’re...not.. joking…” 

Cat shook her head back and forth offering Kara the bottle with a brow raise of her own. 

“This isn’t very responsible..” 

“Cause technically breaking into my own building and skulking about is?” 

“We.. were not skulking we were.. Remaining anonymous in case-” 

“What?” 

“I broke.. Something.” Kara tried while Cat hmm’d with a disbelieving nod, starting to draw the bottle back until Kara’s hand fit around her own, drawing it to herself enough until Cat let it go. 

Kara glanced to the neck, teeth fitting around her bottom lip before she took her own shot of it and winced. “Oh god..” 

“Potent..” 

Kara nodded over and over before giving it back to Cat who made to stand, bottle in hand, stocking feet padding silently about. 

“I get the first one..second one..” 

“What? Why?” 

“Cause you started with asking if I wanted to play.” 

Cat made to argue but let the point slide, swirling the contents of the bottle around a bit until Kara got the hint she had acquiesced.

“Open ended not yes or no..” Kara ruled and Cat nodded before the former scrunched her face in thought. 

“Where did you learn to play pool like that..?”

Cat rose a brow while Kara’s cheeks turned pink and with a grin befitting a cheshire feline, she actually winked at the other woman before taking a short swig of the bottle and passed it to Kara. 

Kara ughed in a frustrated tone shaking her head, pushing up from the ground, taking note they were close to the middle of the roof, which also served as the helio pad and no where near its edges. 

“What I can’t reveal all my secrets.” 

Kara bit at her bottom lip again, already feeling her heartbeat escalate slightly at the prospect of Cat’s question.  She already knew she would answer just about anything without question but like this, both of them on the edge of tipsy and working towards legitimately inebriated she was worried she might do more than just answer invasive personal questions. 

Cat hmm’d taking her time if for no other reason than to watch Kara squirm a bit before she shifted her stance and turned back to Kara completely.

“Name one thing,” she paused for effect, eyeing Kara before continuing. “You don’t like about what I’m wearing.”

Kara toyed with the label of the bottle a minute, contemplating taking a swig only to realize if she did they would probably just trade shots back and forth until security found them the next morning.  Granted she would burn through the alcohol far faster than Cat would but a part of her didn’t want to get any more intoxicated.  

At least as a result of the alcohol.

“Yourshirt.”

Cat rose a brow, leaning a little closer. “My what?” 

“Shirt.” Kara blurted, “I’ve never liked that one..” 

Cat looked at her a minute, then down to the blouse then back up. “It’s four hun-” 

“It’s not flattering in the cut, especially the darts around the chest, and the color looks like it was washed one too many times..” Kara put a hand over her mouth a second after while Cat looked almost impressed for a half second before stalking over and snatching the bottle thereafter. 

“After you then..” Cat supplied, balance beam walking away before turning to look at Kara again more directly while the other woman clearly tried to find the strength of her voice.   

It wasn’t as if Cat was her boss any more, she wasn’t sure really what she was anymore, especially in this particular moment; however watching the other woman fidget and blush and flounder about made her insides twist all over again.  

Flirting was always a fun game, especially in this particular context, but there was another part of Cat that didn’t want it to be a game, wanted it to be far more than a game could ever allow.  

“Scuse me?”  Cat amended when Kara looked at her with weighted expectation.  

“Ss..same question..?”

“You can’t ask the same question” 

“That’s ...not a rule we made” 

Cat smirked, her back still partially to the other woman as she chewed on her bottom lip a bit.  She filled her lungs with the night air, if need be she could always default no the alcohol, and a part of her was already telling her she needed to stop, that they needed to stop and be sober and aware and-.

“We..made.  Interesting turn of phrase.” Cat looked back at the other woman over her shoulder again. “Be bold Kara, like you’ve been all night, sitting in my corner view, asking me out, sneaking into my corporate office, carrying me to the roof… don’t stutter now while those curiosities… those -real- questions burn through the alcohol in your body unasked.”

Kara swallowed thickly, her shoulders shifting as Cat turned to face her again, leaving the surface level question she had to die in her throat while Cat pulled the sides and then back of her blouse free, half the buttons already undone. 

“What...are you doing?” Kara’s voice was sure with that one and Cat never stopped, popping the last button as the breeze caught the edges of the material to fan it further open. 

“It’s not flattering in the cut, and looks worn out..” Her cuffs were last as she shrugged her shoulders and let gravity and the wind do the rest sending the thing up and into the air. “So I’m getting rid of it."


	6. All the Little Everythings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Where we last left our heroes.... they were attempting to remember the drunken flights from the night prior... with little success after waking up together half clothed on Cat's couch.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been a hundred and eighty seven years.... however... I'm still here ;) 
> 
> Small recap though I suggest starting from the beginning to feel the full scope of it all...
> 
> "Title comes from Bruce Springsteen's "I'm on Fire" and Vonda Shepard's cover of the The Pointer Sister's "Fire."
> 
> Takes place in one of my many au-verses where Astra never died, Alura landed, as did Mon-El, James is running CatCo, Winn is at the DEO, M'gann never left, Maggie met Lena thru Alex, Lucy runs the desert facility with Alura on hand while Hank runs the city side one with Astra on hand, Cat is on sabbatical but not like you think... ... just roll with it ;)"
> 
> Prior to season 3....prior to Cat's canon return in the show.. originally a valentines challenge but y'know these things....

Kara let her own weight carry her back, the cushions of the large suspended lounger breaking her fall while the action caused her and the lounger to swing back and forth lazily. Cat could only chuckle at the frustrated woman, curled up in the corner of the lounger they shared, foot sweeping easily across the ground as they moved. 

They had been trying to remember the events of the night before for a couple hours now. At least from after the point of being in the alleyway just outside the bar to waking up on the couch together. The events prior inside the bar itself, while a little hazed, were easily remembered between the two of them. 

“It’s not the end of the world.” Cat mused gently, while Kara lifted her head to look at the other woman pointedly before thumping back into the cushions. 

“I still don’t like it.” 

“No one said you had to.” 

Kara let out another huff of a breath, closing her eyes and shaking her head back and forth slightly.

Cat studied the prone woman, the furrow of her brow, the clench of one hand around the cushions near her hip. Even Kara’s breathing was a reflection of her frustration and for good reason. Cat was more than familiar with not remembering something, especially somethings where alcohol or medication were a key factor in the failure of memory creation to begin with.

With a determined breath of her own, Cat unfolded herself from the corner of the lounger, holding her breath as she eased her way across the furniture. 

Kara for her merit, kept her eyes closed. Her frustration shifting as she felt the movement in weight moving closer to her body. She swallowed thickly when she felt the barest brush of Cat’s hand against her bicep only to hold her own breath when the full weight of Cat’s body stretched out languidly beside her. 

Cat propped her head on her hand, waiting patiently for the other woman to open her eyes or do something beyond just struggling to breathe. When Kara did open those bright blues, she kept them rooted on the canopy above them. Although Cat noticed the cords of Kara’s neck beating relentlessly with her new proximity. 

“Kara?” 

The named woman’s eyes fluttered slightly before she chanced a look to the side, head tipping just enough to look at Cat without eye strain. Outwardly, Kara noted the woman appeared like her namesake; calm, aloof and unruffled. The halo of Cat’s aura spilling around the leaden frames of Kara’s glasses and the thunderous beating of her heart so close to Kara’s ear were the only things that relayed the woman’s nervousness in the moment. 

“What’s more frustrating?” 

Kara shifted slightly, turning her features to look up at Cat with a confused but intrigued expression towards the question asked of her. 

“Not remembering,” Cat licked her lips carefully, seeing Kara’s expression softening with the pause. “Or the wanting, to remember?” 

Kara actually pulled in the bottom corner of her lip, biting down and worrying on it until it was red while Cat waited. She drew a breath after another moment to answer, only to have Cat tip her head at the expression that painted Kara’s face. 

“What?” 

Kara searched the space between them, her mind triggered with familiarity but nothing beyond that followed. The furrow of her brow was back in force and with another frustrated exhale, she shook her head again. 

“I thought I remembered, something, but nothing.” 

Cat nodded with a sense of knowing, clearly there had been something involving some kind of shared element of their personal selves between each other. Cat knew it as soon as the question had come to mind, as if she had already engaged with Kara in this intention driven inquiry. 

“You still didn’t ans-”

“Wanting.” Kara interrupted. 

It was Cat’s turn to tense up as Kara moved, turning towards her and setting the pair of them even closer until she pushed and shifted so that she was sitting again, only this time facing Cat. 

“The wanting to remember is more frustrating.” Kara said, pink touching her cheeks while Cat swallowed visibly. 

“What if.” Cat started, adjusting her own position in order to lean back just enough to look at Kara. “We can’t? I mean, you have a far greater potential to eventually but..” 

Kara made a face, running a hand through her hair, holding back the locks from her almost defeated position. “If I haven’t remembered by now-” 

Cat nodded gently, the unspoken finish to the other woman’s sentence passing between them. 

Kara closed her eyes again, shaking her head ever so minutely before the touch to the side of her face forced them back open. 

“You’re not the only who wants to remember Kara.” Cat let her fingers filter into the depth of Kara’s hair as the woman straightened her features. The pad of Cat’s thumb smoothing across Kara’s cheek as a ghost of a smile revealed itself to the other woman. 

“I think the more we try to force it, the more illusive it’s going to be.” Kara whispered while Cat nodded. 

“I have another idea, if you’re up for it?” 

Kara reached up then, curling her fingers between Cat’s own until they were free of her hair and instead threaded together with Cat’s own, squeezing gently in order to get Cat to continue.

“Do you want to get out of here?” She echoed Kara’s question from the night prior, before everything went to the fog of uncertainty between them. “Go out with me and try to stop forcing the memories and make others?”

Kara swallowed thickly, her fingers tensing around Cat’s own before she spoke. 

“Are you sure-” 

“Yes.” 

Kara couldn’t help the smile that touched her lips. “Cat Grant, -the- Cat Grant, is openly and willingly ready to be seen again, in National City, not only to reclaim her throne but with someone on her arm?”

Cat shifted then, pulling herself up to sit so that their knees were touching while a brow rose at Kara’s sensationalism on the matter. 

“Does it matter so much to you?” 

Kara leaned forward slightly, making sure to keep Cat’s eyes locked on her own. “It doesn’t you? I can almost see the print media on it now, nevermind anyone with a camfrma” 

Kara was hushed by a single digit pressed to her lips. 

“Does it matter, Kara?” 

They searched each other’s eyes for a moment until Kara reached up and drew Cat’s finger from across her mouth.

“It might.” Kara knew what her words would do, even before she said them, as Cat stiffened and her eyes shifted elsewhere. “But not because of you.” 

Cat’s jaw shifted slightly and Kara scooted closer, making sure the other woman didn’t shut down or think she was being rejected. 

“Family, is one thing.” Kara started, squeezing Cat’s hand firmly to get her to pull back into the weight of her words and not just dismiss them. “Someone like you, for the people who would stop at nothing to bring Supergirl down now.” 

“Your cousin seems to forgo that ideal.” 

It was Kara’s turn to look struck before Cat let out a sigh and sat further back. 

“I know.” Cat stated pointedly. “Especially since neither of you seems to want to drop the family titles when concerning your alter egos.”

“-His- alter ego.” Kara pushed, causing Cat to lift a brow at the sudden shift into the defensive with Kara’s tone. 

“I didn’t-” 

“My cousin… is more human than I could ever be. Even you saw that with Myriad and how he was affected. Clark is who he is, Superman is his alter-ego.” 

Kara eased her fingers from between Cat’s, carefully slipping off the lounger so as not to disrupt Cat, needing to move more than the floating furniture would allow. 

“That seems very simple.” 

Kara let out another sigh, turning to look at Cat a moment before resuming her pacing. 

“And revealing.” 

The words stopped Kara in her tracks, her back set to Cat while she looked out over the horizon of National City from their current vantage. She knew the other woman was behind her with the passing of another moment as if she were facing Kara; eyes closing at the palm that smoothed with absolution between the wings of her shoulders. 

“Do you know why I left, why I really left?” 

Kara let the warmth of Cat’s hand penetrate her body, seeping into her chest and spreading like warm water before shaking her head. 

“Because of you. Because of who you are, what you are.”

“I never asked you to do that.” Kara said softly, feeling Cat’s fingers fan wider.

“I know. And I realized too late that it was the wrong thing to do. Which was why I came back, partly, what with my connections to that troublesome group.”

“Cadmus.” Kara glanced over her shoulder at the other woman then, a silent question passing between them before Cat shook her head in the negative.

“I wasn’t aware until Lena told me, during that incident with the President’s order and my sister’s attempt at cleansing.” Cat let out a rough sigh then, letting her hand slip away as she rounded Kara’s frame to look at her directly. 

“I didn’t know how much you or the others knew, or how willing any of you would be with me around again if you did know how I fit into any of that.” Cat reached up then, fitting her hands into Kara’s hair and holding her features as she drew herself closer to the other woman. 

Kara wavered nearer, unsure where to put her own hands until they closed tentatively around Cat’s waist.

“I do realize one very sure thing. Despite everything, whatever the nature of the relationship of you or I resides with one another, we are stronger together Kara. I should have trusted that from my own first hand knowledge prior to that point. We all have our alter-egos, risks we have to assess.” Cat felt the other woman’s grip on her waist tighten, puling her closer. “Some greater than others but none any less important to consid-.”

The rest of Cat’s words were stilled by the tender pressure of Kara’s mouth against her own. Just as she felt as if it were about to end she tightened her hold and refused to give up ground. 

Kara felt the flutter of Cat’s tongue, the pull of her teeth as they surrounded her bottom lip before soft lips tried to soothe the severity of the kiss as they captured her top lip. Hands slid easily, wrapping around Cat’s waist, fingers curling around belt loops until the tell-tale sound of fabric being torn apart halted them both. 

Cat’s grip barely eased from around Kara’s shoulders as the pair of them froze. Kara’s eyes opened first, her mouth breaking reluctantly from Cat’s as she attempted to look down between them only for a breathless laugh to pull her attention back up again. 

“I… I’m sorry I-” 

“Remembered.” 

Kara blinked confused as Cat relaxed her grip to stand on her own again, although she noted Kara’s grip remained. 

“You did that already.”

“This is why I don-”

Cat pushed up on her toes again, nuzzling Kara’s features until her lips were close to the shell of the woman’s ear. 

“You can do that anytime...Supergirl..” Cat set a hand over the pounding of Kara’s chest, her smile hidden against the other woman’s hair as she spoke against the side of the other woman’s neck. 

“This isn’t the first time.” Cat still felt the stiffness in Kara’s body and the refusal to release Cat’s waist. “You did that last night... “ 

Kara swallowed thickly, the haze of the memory still refusing to reach some form of clarity in her mind. 

“I...I-I did?” Kara closed her eyes with the nod against her throat, wishing she could will her heart to slow down before it beat itself out of her ribs and into Cat’s waiting palm. 

“Yes. Explains your shirt..” 

“It.. does?” 

It was Kara’s turn to feel Cat stiffen and her breath catch, the tips of her fingers digging in with another realization. When the other woman didn’t speak after another series of moments Kara tried to tip her head back enough to see what had snagged the other woman’s attention only to feel her heart sink. 

“Cat, what..? What’s wrong?” A cold chill settled at the base of Kara’s spine then, an unsettling realization slithering through her brain. “Oh...oh no.. Cat, wha-did I, did I hurt you or-” 

“No..” There was a short laugh, small and disbelieving before Kara felt Cat’s hair brush across her neck with the shake of her head before the other woman thumped her chest with her forehead. “I can’t.. “ 

The worst part was Cat could believe it, which is why the words stuck in her throat, rough and spiked. Had she been so far gone in physical attention, so inebriated in that moment the night before with Kara that she had forgotten herself. There was no excuse for her actions after that mishap, even if Kara had been right there with her, she should have had more self control, more restraint, more-

“Catherine… whatever it is you’ve remembered, we were both there.” 

Cat’s arms ran the length of Kara’s back, fingers pressing into the wings of her shoulder blades while she shook her head. 

“I should, I need to apologize for last-” 

“What did you remember that has you apologizing to me?” Kara tried, her hands were already brushing across Cat’s cheeks, fingers threading into her hair in an effort to lift the other woman’s features up enough to look at her. 

“You kissed me.” Cat whispered, which only caused Kara to look even more confused, especially when Cat breathed out another disbelieving laugh and shook her head in Kara’s hands before closing her eyes. “You picked me up.. And my skirt tore.” 

Kara made a face, letting out a dark sigh at the revelation and started to say something of her own apology until Cat interrupted her. 

“I could have hurt you Kara.” 

“Cat, do you hear yourself... you couldn’t possibly.”

“Not.. physically hurt you Kara, but I know what I’m feeling, and I think I know what I was feeling in that moment and I don’t even know how or what made me stop but if I hadn’t-” 

“But you did. We did.” Kara filtered her fingers through Cat’s hair, thumbs running the length of her jaw on either side to make the other woman look up without falter. “And whatever you did, or -think- you did, that was so horrible, it’s there, that moment, I know it. I can’t see it, but I feel… things for you and surrounding you and last night and -neither- of us were in the smartest of spaces but... I promise you. Cat, I swear you did nothing wrong. Nothing I didn’t want you to do.” 

“I could have, I wanted to.. -I- feel that, how much... “ 

Kara moved her thumbs inward, drawing Cat’s sentence to a stop as she bent down to her until they were on an even eye level. “You wanted me?” 

Cat swallowed audibly, the sudden intensity of Kara’s tone coupled with the weight of those blue eyes that never wavered catching her off guard. Her hands were up over Kara’s a second later, tips hooking around Kara’s hold before she nodded. 

“And wanted to tear off more than the couple buttons you managed to?”

Kara felt heat beneath her touch, the column of Cat’s throat turning red just above the line of her collar where the rest of her skin was already flushed. Cat felt the other woman square herself, drawing the pair of them even closer even as she nodded. 

“I remember that look. That want Cat. The promises you were making to yourself and to me with it. I don’t remember what was said exactly, or what was done, not clearly, and while not remembering scares me, what’s making me tremble right now, isn’t fear. It isn’t the veiled memory of you being some kind of unstoppable predator conquering me or something.” 

Cat tried to pull in more air, tried to will the flush of her skin to calm and her mind to stop running in a million directions on what ifs as she waited for Kara to speak again. 

“It’s your mouth.” Kara gently flexed her fingertips with the sound Cat made with that admission. “And the fleeting images of where my skin still burns with a memory I can’t recall. Your touch. Your body. All these minute flickers of sensation that I can’t put together with any tangibility beyond what my body is telling me right now, and it’s driving me crazy because I wanted more. I want more.” Kara swallowed audibly, “but I’m absolutely terrified. Probably even more than you seem to be...”

Cat licked her lips. Letting out an exhale on the edge of relief. Even if she felt far more tense than she had moments ago when she was trying to rationalize her broken memories and her desires into something tangible for her own self. 

When Kara failed to continue Cat pulled in a deeper breath in an attempt to calm the swirl of emotions palpitating between the both of them 

“Why?” 

“Because I don’t know what I’m doing, but I know what I could do to you.” Kara felt Cat’s own fingers tighten around her hands in response. “Between the both of us, you’re more of an expert here and I’m not gonna lie. Cat you... you make me want to punch the moon and at the same time blow out my powers and hope they don’t come back.”

“Don’t say that.” Cat was quick, so much so as to make Kara appear physically struck at the vehemence of her words.

“Would it be so bad-”

“No.” Cat spoke without hesitation. “For me, no.” Cat drew Kara’s hand to her lips then, kissing away any doubt her knee jerk response may have caused. “Either way, your abilities, they’re an extension of you, not who you are to me.” 

“Then-”

“You’re not mine. Not just, not that I wouldn’t.. I.. it’s like your cousin. The world is so dependant, so demanding. It needs you, both, in it. Especially now after-” 

“Everything..” 

Kara let out a heavy exhale, only to feel the dark edges of the weight of those ‘everythings’ threatening to creep into her until Cat’s arms surrounded her again. The feel of the other woman’s entire body pressing flush against her own chasing that weight away for the moment. 

Cat pulled in a deep breath, tightening her arms around the other woman as she counted the beats of Kara’s heart, her mind almost convinced she could hear more than one organ pumping away before the rumble of Kara’s voice thundered in her ear. 

“Hm?”

“Do, you still want to get out of here, or?” 

“What do you want?” 

Kara let out a soft laugh, nesting her cheek against Cat’s crown. “That’s… a very loaded question.” 

Cat couldn’t help the corner of her mouth from lifting, or the tightening of her hold further before nudging Kara’s collarbone. “I think we could both benefit from getting out of here for a bit.” 

Kara nodded. “I have one request then.” 

“Anything.” 

“Can we stop by my place..” Kara kept a straight face even as Cat leaned back enough to look at her with a raised brow. “I don’t doubt you have something that would fit, but I need to change and I’m not sure if I can be comfortable enough if I’m wearing-”

“Something of mine..” 

Kara nodded gently while Cat smiled. 

“Let me change, again… then we’ll go.” 

The next hour was spent in a languid sense of urgency, from Cat changing clothes that weren’t torn to Kara complaining her phone was dead but if anything had occurred that required her there were other methods people like Alex and the DEO could get ahold of her. 

The walk up had been uneventful and without comment although Kara could easily read Cat’s body language and just as she set her keys to undo the lock she stopped and turned on the other woman. 

“Honestly? Not a word?” 

Cat rose a finely shaped brow at the other woman, her expression the picture of nonchalant detachment. “Whatever do you mean?” 

Kara let out a soft laugh, leaving the keys to the lock as she turned into the other woman, setting her off balance at the unexpectedness of the maneuver until Cat found her back pressed into the door jam. 

“We aren’t exactly in uptown National City anymore, far from it by comparison.”

Cat licked her lips, arms uncrossing from between them so that her fingers might hook along the lines of Kara’s front pockets. “No, we’re not but I’ll let you in on a little secret.” 

It was Kara’s turn to arc a brow, not only at Cat’s tone and the conspiratorial manner in which she looked down both ends of the hall but with the gentle tug she felt, teasing them closer together. 

“I have it on good authority that Supergirl frequents this area.” Cat’s voice was so soft, Kara almost had to strain to hear her. Keeping up appearances she oh’d just as quietly, setting her hands on the wall beside Cat’s head as she leaned closer for secret keeping purposes and all. 

“So you’re saying you feel… safe here?” 

Cat nodded, curling her fingers tighter until their noses nearly brushed. “I thought I had said as much last night when you pointed it out.” 

Kara tipped her head, her flirtatious expression gone and replaced with minute confusion. Why was Cat remembering so much faster than she was. She caught the falling fo Cat’s own expression, the hint of a wince at that revelation and shook herself back into the moment. 

“I pointed it out?” Kara questioned, the edge of her desire gone but her tone was just as soft as before, body leaning closer. 

Cat searched the other woman’s expression carefully, one hand easing free of Kara’s pocket to settle on the flat of her chest again with trembling fingertips as if the whole of the memory finally caught up with her. .

“We were like this… but it was windier.. Higher…” She pulled in a sudden breath, realizing why they were positioned like this and with it Kara’s other hand wrapped around her waist protectively. Keeping her from sliding to the floor as her legs became rubbery. 

“Youfell.” Kara whispered in a rush, her mental haze parting just enough to allow her to remember. “You -fell-.” It was stronger this time, and with her her whole stance shifted, chest pressing into Cat’s hand, body stiffening and Cat swore she stood nearly two inches taller and three closer in the span of an exhale. 

“You caught me.” Cat swallowed, fingers fisting around the material at Kara’s chest. 

Kara pressed their bodies together firmly, both arms surrounding Cat now as she tried to convey that she always would, or would put forth a valiant effort to die trying. Even now when the distance to the ground was so short. Cat’s other hand surrounded Kara’s bicep, flexing tightly as the pair relayed an entire conversation within that shared look of revelation.

Neither woman realizing they were no longer touching the ground. 

Cat drew a breath to say something else only to find the words locked in her throat as Kara’s eyes burned bright a split second before her apartment door was flung open from the inside. 

“Kara Zor-El!”  
“Kara Danvers!”

Both women’s voices overlapped each other and with a small oof from Cat they were on the ground again and Kara’s eyes were back to normal. 

“Mom?!” Kara stepped back, pulling Cat with her and around her hip so Kara could act as a kind of barricade to the forthcoming barrage. 

“Do you have any idea--”  
“How foolish the both of you have acted--”  
“I thought I had taught you better, not to expose yourself-  
“Even Deputy Director Lane and I are less conspicuous than the pair of you.” 

Alura’s comment on the manner, while well meaning perhaps, managed to silence even Eliza as she, Cat and a red faced Kara stared at her. 

“How many moms do you have…” 

Kara blinked, looking over her shoulder at Cat incredulously.

“When my little one doesn’t answer her devices and disappears with someone no one has seen in months, it is a wonder half the planet does not show up looking for one reason or another.” 

Kara visibly winced upon hearing Astra’s voice just beyond the door. 

“Get inside, both of you, before we have the entire building involved.” Eliza spoke sharply, making a path which Alura mimicked as she stepped back and to the side of the door of Kara’s apartment. 

Cat sized each woman up equally, recalling the one with the white streak from her moments of havoc she had wrought upon National City well before now and finding the situation of her having a twin all the more intriguing. She also recalled the third woman, Eliza, from when Kara had brought her into the office during some holiday, easily seeing the familiar resemblance in Kara’s ‘sister’ Alex through the older woman. 

“My question still stands. “ She whispered into Kara’s ear as the pair separated, knowing she was going to get to the root of these women and their relation to the heroine before their time was up here. 

“We have a few questions of our own.” Alura spoke in her Justicar-ian tone. One Kara wanted to groan aloud to as Cat slipped away from her and they took up their own places along Kara’s island. Cat the picture of intrigue and curiosity while Kara looked sheepish and clearly wished she was under a rock at the moment. 

“I just bet.” Cat answered back confidently.

“Not something I would get cocky about… Ms. Grant.” Lucy’s voice came from the same direction as Astra’s had been as she rounded the corner of Kara's bedroom in full tactical gear, tucking her phone back into a utility pouch. 

With that Kara couldn’t help but groan and set her head into her hands while Cat straightened further. 

They were both in so much trouble.


End file.
